


The Project

by OdeToPedrazar (MyPrivateLaughter)



Series: The Project [1]
Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-03 21:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2889116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyPrivateLaughter/pseuds/OdeToPedrazar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Pedrazar from Tumblr prompt made by <a href="http://nerdy-is-super-cool.tumblr.com/">Kate</a><br/>Pedro and Balthazar have been to the same school, shared classes, just never really got to know each other. That is, until the History project where the pair are assigned to each other. An unexpected confession and a shared love of procrastination sparks an unlikely friendship...<br/><a href="http://odetopedrazar.tumblr.com/post/106358150000/the-project-pedros-house-1-4">On Tumblr</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pedro's House

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FZZT](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FZZT/gifts).



Balthazar stood outside the Donaldson’s house for the first time. He was nervous but only because he didn’t know Pedro that well and he always found small talk just excruciating. But he mentally prepared himself for the uncomfortable silences and rang the doorbell.

The lady who answered the door, presumably Mrs Donaldson, looked amiable but confused as to Balthazar’s identity. “Hello!”

“Hi, is this Pedro’s house? I’m, um, from school. We’re doing a project together.”

Mrs Donaldson smiled and welcomed him in, insisting on making him a drink and indicated the way towards Pedro’s room. “Pedro, your friend’s here!”

‘Friend’ may have been overstating it slightly. I mean, yes, they had shared classes and things but Balthazar couldn’t really remember if they’d ever actually spoken. They just had a different group of friends.

Balthazar gave an awkward knock on Pedro’s bedroom door and then pushed it open.

“Hi, bro.” Pedro was sitting at his computer in shorts and a green t-shirt, his hair sort of messy as if he’d just gotten up. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, you know,” Balthazar said vaguely. “I, I’m, excited about this project.”

“Really?”

“Um, no. That was a joke.”

And to Balthazar’s surprise, Pedro laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Hey, do you want a drink?”

“Nah, your mums getting me one.”

“Cool, sit down, man. Is working in here alright?”

Balthazar agreed, sat on the bed and began to get his history books and laptop out of his bag.

“So Mrs Fletcher is a bit of a pain in the ass, right?” Pedro said, conversationally while finding his own textbooks.

“I don’t know,” Balthazar responded, “I mean, I kind of like her. She’s pretty fair.”

“Oh, so you’re one of those students.”

“What?”

“You think the dunces get what they deserve,” Pedro said with a glint in his eye.

“I, I, what?” Balthazar felt flustered but wasn’t sure what had happened. “No, I mean, I’m not – _you’re_ not a dunce. You always get the best mark in essays.”

“Not always. And that doesn’t mean I enjoy writing them.”

“I don’t think the fact that we have to write essays makes Mrs Fletcher a pain in the ass. We have to write essays.”

“Do we though? Do we really?” Pedro laughed. “And this whole project thing is a bit annoying. We are old enough to choose our own partners, right? It’s like she’s deliberately put us with people we don’t know or don’t get on with just to make it more hard work. She put Bea and Ben together! Like that’s going to be productive.”

“Weren’t you - I thought you were trying to set them up. Isn’t Mrs Fletcher helping you out a bit there?”

Pedro gave Balthazar a funny look. “Do you watch those videos?”

Balthazar felt himself getting hot in the face but it was more because of Pedro’s accusatory look than actually feeling embarrassed. “Um, you do know that like everyone in the school watches them, right? Like, probably the teachers as well.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh wow. Maybe Mrs Fletcher is trying to set them up.”

“Huh, yeah, probably.”

Pedro considered Balthazar for a moment and then said, “I wasn’t being funny before when I said about partners. I don’t mind doing this with you, that’s not what I meant.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“We just don’t know each other very well. You normally hang around with all those girls.”

“Yeah, well, I’m gay so I thought I better do at least one thing to live up to the stereotype.” And because Pedro was giving him another funny look, Balthazar added, “That was a joke. Well, um, not that gay part, just that isn’t why I have lots of girl friends, I um, I think.”

“Yeah, no, I just didn’t realise that was true about you being – Oh, I don’t mean that-” Pedro gave a pained expression. “There’s no reason you shouldn’t be. I’m not being – Shit, don’t think that I’m – I’m pretty sure I’m bisexual myself so -” Then he really did cringe. “Shit.”

“Um… are you alright?”  
Pedro was shaking his head like he was giving up on life. “Yeah, yeah, I just haven’t actually told anyone that yet.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, maybe it would be good if you didn’t tell any of your girlfriends I said that.”

“I, um, yeah, I wouldn’t. I mean, I’m not going to out you.”

Pedro looked up at Balthazar and seemed to be deciding if this was an accurate statement or not. He nodded, though, seemingly satisfied. “Well, this has got off to a weird start.”

“Yeah,” Balthazar agreed. “Not exactly sure what I was expecting but… this isn’t…”

Pedro laughed this really open, generous laugh. “No, not exactly. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Pedro’s smile was appreciative. “Now I’m wondering why we’ve never hung out before.”

“Oh, um,” Balthazar felt an uncomfortable squirming feeling inside, “I don’t know.”


	2. Balthazar's House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos/comments on the first chapter! Thought I actually better post this before January due to the fic challenge! So I will be Pedrazar spamming every day til then ;) [On Tumblr](http://odetopedrazar.tumblr.com/post/106421017690/the-project-balthazars-house-2-4)

Balthazar will admit to feeling a little excited apprehension about Pedro Donaldson coming to his house to work on their History project together. The last few of days at school he had been coming to terms with the fact that he and Pedro actually knew each other now. The first time Pedro had said ‘hi’ to him in the corridor had been a bit of a shock but not as weird as when Pedro had stood next to Balthazar’s desk while he packed away his things after English and chatted to him about their reading assignment. Just casually chatted.

Not a big deal, Balthazar reminded himself. Except that yes, obviously he did think that Pedro was pretty attractive and yes, Pedro had recently and accidently confided in him about his bisexuality.

But not a big deal at all.

So there was no reason why the whole Thursday should be crawling along second by second because Balthazar was spending all of them obsessing about how Pedro Donaldson was actually going to be coming to his house at the end of the day.

Finally, that time arrived and they met up outside of school, making their way home with a small group of friends until they all dispersed their separate ways. They chatted about TV programmes they both liked, Flight of the Concords and Game of Thrones, until they made it back to Balthazar’s.

“Wow,” was Pedro’s first reaction upon entering Balthazar’s room. “That’s a lot of instruments.”

“Um, yeah, yeah…” It had been a long time since anyone had been surprised by his musicality so he wasn’t sure how to react. That was sort of his thing and all his friends just knew it.

“Do you actually play all these?” Pedro indicated to the cases stacked in the corner – a saxophone case, French horn, violin and viola.

“Nah, nah, I just collect instruments to store in my room.”

“Joke?” Pedro asked with a smile.

“Yeah, joke. I’m not that great on those though. Better on piano and guitar and stuff.”

“That’s amazing.” Pedro took off his bag and sat down on Balthazar’s bed.

Balthazar was a little envious of the way that Pedro managed to seem immediately comfortable in any space or situation. When they’d been walking home, for example, he’d been chatting with Balthazar’s friends as if he’d known them all intimately for years.

“Are you one of those musical protégées like Mozart?”

“I wouldn’t say I was ever quite protégée status,” Balthazar smirked. “I do want to be a musician though or a composer.”

“You write stuff?”

“Yeah, like, not very good stuff. I write lots of songs mostly but I do want to be a proper composer sometime.”

“Will you play me something?”

Balthazar was surprised by the request and grinned. “Yeah, I mean, yeah but are we actually ever going to do any work for this project thing.”

Pedro laughed. “I had actually forgotten about that. Genuinely, that is worrying. Yeah, the project.” He gave Balthazar a sideways glance and then said, “Maybe play one song then we’ll do some work?”

So Balthazar had played him a song from Flight of the Concords on the guitar which had made Pedro laugh and he’d joined in with most of it. But Pedro had then insisted that Balthazar play one of his own songs, so he did. After which, Pedro seemed to have forgotten about the project again because they then talked for a long time about music and instruments and their favourite bands.

It was only when Balthazar’s dad said that dinner was ready and that Pedro was welcome to stay if he wanted that they realised it had been a couple of hours and that they’d not done a single bit of work.

“Um, dinner first and then work on the project?” Balthazar suggested.

Dinner was made slightly awkward by Balthazar’s parents assuming that Pedro was Balthazar’s new boyfriend and his dad asking how long they’d been going out.

Pedro had definitely looked startled and Balthazar had hurriedly explained about the History project. His parents apologised profusely but then exacerbated the situation by explaining how Balthazar only had a few friends who were boys and mostly when he had guys around they were boyfriends.

“Ok, um, Mum, you’re making it sound like I have loads of guys round.”

“Oh, no, sorry. We just mean because you like guys in that way. Obviously you haven’t had that many boyfriends.”

Balthazar shook his head with a smirk on his face. “Somehow you’ve made it worse.”

“How?”

“Sorry,” Balthazar said to Pedro, who was laughing.

“No, it’s fine!”

“Sorry,” Balthazar’s dad reiterated. “There’s no reason we should assume that you’re not straight. You’re obviously straight.”

Balthazar glanced with a grin at Pedro who was still laughing.

“Maybe if our son communicated with us more then this wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely going to confide in you about my love life after this.”

When they had finally finished the excruciating ordeal that was dinner, they escaped back to Balthazar’s room. This time they had both sat down on either end of the bed, opened their books and got their pens out before Pedro said, “Balthazar, can I ask you a stupid question?”

“Um, is it History related?”

“No.”

“Alright then…”

“Do you think I look gay?”

“What?”

Pedro sat up a bit straighter as if this would help Balthazar come to his decision. “Or like, do I look completely straight?”

Balthazar didn’t know how to react so he just grinned. “I, um, I really have no idea.”

“Did you think I was bisexual? Before I said that thing the other day?”

“Well, no, I mean, I just kind of assume that everyone is straight. Um, the only time I tried to kiss someone who hadn’t explicitly told me they were gay, I got a black eye.” Pedro looked shocked by this so Balthazar had looked down. “Sorry.”

“That’s awful!”

“It wasn’t great.”

“So you don’t have the best gay-dar?”

“Um, I don’t think so.”

Pedro had looked thoughtfully down at his books, but Balthazar was pretty certain he wasn’t thinking about History. This was confirmed when he said, “I haven’t told anyone else that I think I’m Bi. Is that bad?”

Balthazar had shrugged. “I’m, um, not some kind of sexuality guru, you know.”

“I don’t even think rationally that people would mind.”

“Of course they wouldn’t.”

“I just have never actually met a guy that I could imagine being in an actual relationship with so I just never bothered dealing with it all.”

Balthazar wasn’t sure when in this sentence his heart had stopped beating but he began to feel light-headed by the end of it. But there was actually no reason to think that Pedro was talking about anyone in particularly so Balthazar tried not to pass out by saying, “But you think you want to now?  I mean, deal with it?”

Pedro had looked up into Balthazar’s eyes then and said, “I don’t know. Maybe, yeah.”  
Balthazar looked away, trying really hard not to get his hopes up. After all, he had been very, very wrong before. He suggested they actually do some work and they did pretty well from then on until Pedro said he had to go home.

“Maybe we could finish it off on Saturday?” Pedro suggested.

“I’ve got a gig in the afternoon.”

“Really? Can I come?”

“Uh, yeah, of course. It’s just in this café in town, ‘the Moon and Sixpence’.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, it’s an open event so… I couldn’t actually stop you. There are a few people playing. It should be good.”

They agreed that they’d finish their project after the gig.

“Do you think that Mrs Fletcher was trying to do some kind of class bonding thing?” Pedro asked as he got all his books together. “Like would we have gotten to know each other if it wasn’t for this?”

“I dunno. I guess we wouldn’t have.”

“Good old Mrs Fletcher then, eh?”


	3. The Library

“So why haven’t you mentioned the Pedro Donaldson situation?” Ursula asked.

It was Saturday afternoon and Ursula was helping Balthazar pack away his things after playing a gig in town. It had gone well and Balthazar was feeling exceptionally happy. Pedro had said he would come to watch but Balthazar hadn’t really, honestly expected him to turn up. Still, he smirked at Ursula’s comment. “What ‘situation’?”

“The situation of him being a little bit in love with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

Ursula stopped winding up the cable in her hands and gave her friend a slightly exasperated look through her wide glasses. “He brought all his friends to show you off to. And they’ve all left and he’s hanging around.”

Balthazar laughed and glanced over to where Pedro was sitting at a nearby table nursing a cup of coffee and looking at something on his phone. “You always think everyone’s in love with me.”

“Yes, but mostly I’m right.”

“Sorry but we’re doing our project thing in the library after this. So it’s not romantic in any way.”

Ursula looked a little less triumphant but then added, “Ok, but you do realise that most people finished that project in like the hour after school. How long have you two been working on it together exactly?”

She had got him there and Balthazar busied himself with his guitar case in an attempt to cover his blush. “Yeah, well, um, we’ve kind of got to know each other, haven’t we? Hanging out. What makes you think… I mean, he isn’t gay, is he?”

“I saw the way he was looking at you when you were playing and let me tell you, there was nothing straight about it.”

Balthazar looked up at Ursula to see how serious she was being and noticed Pedro was on the move. “Alright, um, be quiet, he’s coming over.”

Ursula glanced around and then grinned back at Balthazar. “Look at that smile. Is that ‘my new friend is amazing’ or is that ‘my new boyfriend is amazing’?”

“Alright, alright,” Balthazar attempted to hush her. “Hi, Pedro.”

“Bro,” Pedro greeted him by clamping him on the shoulder, “that was amazing! You were incredible, dude! You were way better than the others.”

“It wasn’t a competition,” Balthazar muttered but was unable to keep the pleased smile from his face.

“Seriously, I had no idea how good you were. I hope you’re prepared for fame because I don’t think Ben’s ever going to stop talking about it.”

“Messina High fame, you mean?” Ursula chipped in and Pedro did his best not to show that he’d only just really noticed her.

“Yeah, yeah,” he grinned. “What other kind of fame would you want?”  
“True.”

The intensity of praise made Balthazar feel a bit uncomfortable. He picked up his guitar case and swung it around his shoulder. “So, um, are you ready to head to the library?”

“No way,” Pedro unexpectedly responded. “We can’t go to the library now. There’d be all those people disturbing us asking for your autograph. No, we’ve got to go out, bro.”

“I, um, don’t you think we should finish the History thing?” Balthazar asked, trying his best to ignore Ursula’s knowing smile.

Pedro looked a little put out. “Do you want to go to the library? Yeah, I guess if you want, of course…”

“No,” Balthazar quickly interjected. “Let’s go out.”

“For food?”

“Yeah, fine. Ursula do you want to…?”

“Oh, no, I’ve got to go,” Ursula said with the widest of smiles on her faces. “Good job, Balthy. That was so great.” She gave him a brief hug and then left them seeming rather smug.

“You ready to go?” Pedro asked. “Want me to carry anything.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

They walked out into the busy street and wandered with no real direction in a comfortable silence until Pedro said out of nowhere, “Did she call you ‘Balthy’?”

“Um, yeah.”

Pedro laughed. “That’s really cute. Balth. _Balthy_ …”

“Wow, are we at the pet names stage already?”

Pedro cast him a look that made Balthazar cringe and wish he’d said nothing. Then Pedro said, “I think we may have missed some crucial parts out.”

Balthazar was too embarrassed to really respond, he just nodded to his feet and made some uncommitted noises, wondering why Ursula had had to get _that idea_ stuck in his head.

Eventually, they decided upon a place to eat and managed to get a table by the window so they watched passersby while waiting to be served.

“You know that song that you played that you said you’d written?” Pedro asked.

“Um, ‘Fragile’?”

“Yeah, who did you write that about? Or is that personal. Sorry.”

“Nah, nah, it was ages ago. This guy I knew from band. It wasn’t great in the end. I mean, he wasn’t out so… he’s still not out actually.”

“Ooh, anyone I know?” Pedro grinned but Balthazar didn’t.

“I’m not going to tell you.”

Pedro immediately understood what he had said and groaned. “Ugh, sorry,” he hastily said. “I didn’t mean that. Of course not.”

“Don’t worry. I mean, you wouldn’t want me to say anything about you.”

“No,” Pedro agreed and then smiled again. “Actually, I don’t know. Maybe you could just tell everyone for me. That sounds good.”

“Hm,” Balthazar smirked. "I'm not sure if people would believe me."

"Why not?"

"I don't know, they might just think it's wishful thinking or something..."

Balthazar looked at Pedro cautiously but was relieved to see his face was glowing with a fierce pleasure. Then still with a smile on his face, Pedro said more seriously, “I am going to tell everyone. I do want to.”

Balthazar didn’t know what to say so he just nodded and looked out of the window. “That’s good.”

“Honestly I’m a bit annoyed about this whole thing.”

“What thing?”

“Why we didn’t get to know each other before. Why did that never happen?”

And something about the way that Pedro was looking at him made Balthazar feel brave enough to joke, “You’re not really my type.”

And thankfully Pedro grinned. “Oh no?”

“Nah, not really.”

Pedro sat back on his chair and folded his arms. “What’s your type? Because I don’t know if you knew this about me but I can be very adaptable.”

“Nah…” Balthazar smirked. “I don’t think I really have a type.”

“No? Is your type not sporty guys with an interest in History?”

“You really can’t claim to have an interest in History. I mean, if this project has taught us anything. You do realise we’re going to have to finish that off tomorrow now instead.”

“Yeah, that was kind of my plan.”

“You had a plan?”

“I can be pretty devious,” Pedro said leaning forwards with a happy glint in his eyes.

“So I see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all precious cuties. (The title of this chapter is meant to be a joke btw lol) [On Tumblr](http://odetopedrazar.tumblr.com/post/106496670990/the-project-the-library-3-4)  
>  _Edit: changed the 'coward' bit in the middle as it was brought to my attention that this could be interpreted as a comment about coming out. I really would never intend to be offensive so if I ever am please call me out on my ignorance. Thanks and sorry <3_


	4. Messina High

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting especially for the lovely ladies [prettyfaroutman](http://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyfaroutman) and [aeternamente](http://archiveofourown.org/users) ;) ;) But also for everyone one else! <3

Balthazar was unused to standing in front of a group of people without his guitar. And even though he and Pedro had spent ten times the amount of time on this project that the other members of the class had, he couldn’t help feeling they were somewhat under prepared. Balthazar felt uncomfortable throughout the presentation of their project and it wasn’t helping that his heart missed a beat whenever Pedro gave him that gorgeously encouraging smile. How was it possible that in less than a fortnight he’d gone from knowing next to nothing about the guy to having a full blown I-need-to-kiss-you-right-now crush on him. Pedro Donaldson.

Mrs Fletcher was sitting at her desk with her arms folded as the presentation concluded. “That was very thorough, boys. Did you enjoy finding out about Rasputin?”

“Oh yeah,” Pedro nodded enthusiastically. “Interesting guy.”

“What was your favourite part of the project, Balthazar?”

“Urm,” Balthazar struggled. He was used to teachers picking on him in attempts to get him to contribute more. He ended up saying the only thing that came to mind. “I guess his assassination was pretty weird.”

Mrs Fletcher raised her eyebrows. “Very morbid. Pedro?”

“My favourite part, Mrs Fletcher, honestly was hanging out with Balth,” Pedro declared, embracing everyone’s laughs with a cheerful grin and especially enjoying Balthazar’s deep flush. “And I am also grateful for this opportunity actually because I wanted to tell everyone something. I’m not sure if anyone is interested or not, but just so you know, I’m bisexual.”

“Pedro,” Mrs Fletcher scolded over the class’s shocked and amused reaction, “that is deeply inappropriate. I am appalled. This is History, not a romantic comedy.”

Pedro knew that this was true. It was lucky that he and Mrs Fletcher usually got on so well otherwise there may have been worse consequences to this announcement regarding his sexuality. “Sorry, sorry. I was just taking advantage of the platform.”

“Please save your personal declarations for outside of the classroom.”

“Yes, sorry, sorry,” Pedro repeated.

“Alright, sit down you two.”

Pedro chanced a glance across at Balthazar as he made his way back to his desk but the expression on his face was unreadable.

Pedro hung back after the period had ended and grabbed Balthazar as he made his way out of the classroom with Ursula and another friend.

“Hey, Balth, can I have a word?”

“Um, yeah, course,” he said, and allowed himself to be led around the corner into an empty classroom where Pedro closed the door then perched on a nearby desk.

“Did you like my dramatic coming out?”

Balthazar smirked adorably at him, fiddling with his jumper sleeve. “Yeah, dramatic is the right word. Don’t um, feel as if you have to announce it to every room you walk into.”

Pedro grinned and felt himself relax. Yes, he decided to himself, I really like this guy. “Just thought, you know, it was like ripping off a plaster or something.”

Balthazar shrugged. “It’s one strategy.”

There was a slight pause in which Pedro knew he had to address why he’d dragged him away into this room but wasn’t sure where to start. He cleared his throat, stood up and then said, “So the History project is over officially…”

“Yeah.”

“I just wondered if we could still hang out,” Pedro ventured.

Balthazar had a wide smile on his face. “Of course.”

Pedro wasn’t sure if he’d said it exactly right. He took a step closer to Balthazar, just enough to make his intentions clear. “But like, maybe in a sort of datey kind of way?”

Balthazar didn’t miss a beat, didn’t move away, just nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Yeah?” And Pedro with an elated sort of unconsciousness he stepped closer to Balthazar.

“Yeah, well, I think it’s sort of expected after that declaration to everyone so I don’t have much choice really.”

They both smirked and Pedro wasn’t sure afterwards who had instigated the kiss, but somehow their lips had met and Pedro had his hand on Balthazar’s cheek and he was drinking in his scent, the taste like a drug shuddering through his veins.

When they broke apart, Balthazar was still smiling.  
“Wow,” Pedro muttered.

“What?”

“That’s the first time I’ve kissed a boy,” he said. “I guess that really makes it official.”

“Do you want a badge or something?” Balthazar grinned.

“Yes. I want a badge.”

Balthazar looked down at his feet and mumbled, “Was it, um…”

“Yeah, it was!” Pedro quickly confirmed. “Hang on, let me check -” and he leant forwards to kiss him again, pulling away slightly to mutter, “Yeah that’s pretty great,” before Balthazar tugged him closer once more.

It was a few minutes later when they were discovered by a deeply exasperated Mrs Fletcher. But even a lecture about appropriate behaviour on school premises did nothing to keep the happy glow from Pedro’s features or to prevent him from slipping his hand into Balthazar’s as they walked out of the classroom together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D hope you enjoyed! <3 Now very excited about the [lovely little ficlets](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/LovelyLittleFiclets/profile#rules) :) :) Can't wait to read all your fics!


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